Long delay. Sorry about that, I've been busy with school and music; Hehehe. Alright. Here's this, then.

"A ferret? Alex?" said Laure, confused.

Wow. And I thought I knew her a little better than this, thought Laure half-jokingly.

Jinx nodded and made her way to an open spot near the patch. "That's what she's been doing all summer! No wonder she never answered my repeated owls... augh. I knew she was working on something," she sounded annoyed, which didn't help the puffapod picking process. She was plucking the buds so fast she nearly dropped half of them, which, to say in the least, did not please Sprout.

Laure was sitting in a large armchair in the Ravenclaw common room, chin in her hand, and emitted a rather audible sigh of exhaustion. She stared into the fire with a dusty-looking book, some transfiguration homework, in her lap. It was already quite cold in the castle, which took the beach-going girl by surprise. So, as one could imagine, she had a throw blanket around her, and her chair was as close the fire as physically possible but far enough away that her robes wouldn't catch fire.

The portrait door swung open, and out of it came three older people Laure didn't know. One was a short, well-built, Asian boy whose black bangs protruded over his eyes, parallel to the ground, making him not too hard on the eyes. Another was a tall, athletic blonde who looked like she had some Italian in her. The third was a very short (probably five five or six) girl with ebony hair, and a complexion that looked as if it had been carved from marble.

All three of them proceeded to the couch a few seats away from Laure's chair, and were already talking vehemently to each other. Laure turned toward them slightly, all the better to hear what they were saying...

I'm not eavesdropping, Laure managed to convince herself. Just... listening to what they're saying without their knowing. That's all.

"Oh, really?" said the ebony-haired girl. "I thought you two were still together. Why haven't you sent anything to me?"

"Uh, well," the guy said. "I, uh..."

"Forgot?" ebony-haired said with a sly smile. Laure turned back to the fire, but was still listening closely.

The two that had just spoken fell silent for a few moments, observing the fire and the rest of the room. The ebony-haired girl spotted Laure after a time and said, "Oh, hello! I didn't see you there. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't... seen you... at all."

Laure blinked and looked at her. Expectant, dark brown eyes were staring back at her own. "Oh, right. Um..." she seemed at a loss for words, "...I am Laure, Laure Martin."

"That new fifth year?" inquired the blonde suddenly. Laure had not noticed that she had gained the others' attention as well.

"Oh," said the ebony-haired girl as she grinned in embarrassment. "I guess I have seen you before, then..."

The French girl nodded. Finally, she was meeting more people!

"We're seventh years, maybe we can give you some advice," said ebony-haired half-jokingly. "Oh, I'm Myna Baeza, by the way. Short for Minerva, but I think that sounds too old, and it's also McGonagall's name."

"Leilani Merrill," said the blonde. "My parents are fixated on Hawaii. Myna's are obsessed with Greek and Roman names," she added with a shrug.

Myna nodded in agreement and rolled her eyes. "My sister's name is Xanthe, X-A-N-T-H-E. She hates it because it's so unusual."

Laure laughed a little. She understood siblings hating their names; her older brother, Benoît, wished he had had an American name and had, in fact, renamed himself "Brian".

The boy spoke up for the first time to Laure. "Laure? Where have I heard that..." he said half to himself, squinting as he tried to recall. "Anyway, I've got a sibling as well, Taro. He's in your year, I think. Maybe a year older... I'm Leo Yasu, anyhow."

"Oh, then I'll try to look for him at the Ravenclaw table," Laure said with a smile. "I should probably head to bed now, however. Perhaps I'll see you later?" she stood as she tossed the blanket onto the chair, and grabbed her book.

"Perhaps," agreed Myna with a grin. "'Bye, Laure."

"'Bye," she walked toward the girls' dormitories. Once she had reached the top of the stairs, she heard a door slam and saw an older boy tromp angrily past her without so much as a glance at her.

((Before Laure enters))

Alex sat on her bed, newly laid with a misty blue comforter that she had brought from home. She stared out of the open window, waiting for a certain letter to arrive; it would contain her registration form for a new broomstick.

Patiently she waited, as a cool breeze from blew in across her face, straying golden blonde locks. She sighed deeply, remembering how little sleep she had gotten because of her little project with Malfoy – and the comforter was starting to feel very inviting and deep. The dozing Scotswoman hardly noticed the sound of flapping wings drawing ever closer.

Oliver the kestrel landed on the window sill, clawing nervously from side to side with a slip of parchment tied to his left leg. When Alex didn't respond the irritated bird squawked loudly, demanding to know why she wasn't paying any attention to him.

Alex's eyes jolted open in alarm as the furious kestrel continued to screech. "Alright', alrigh'," she said finally, sitting up and removing the parchment from his leg with one deft hand, and rubbing her eyes with the other. The bird had a habit of flying onto Kyung-Soon's bedpost, so Alex didn't think it weird as he flew behind her.

She began to unroll the parchment when she heard a noise. Sounded like... stretching? Something stretching? Alex paused. She knew that sound. It was all too familiar to a person with abilities like her. The animagus morphing sound. Slowly, she turned around only to see something that made her cheeks flush with rage.

"Hello, Alex," said a smooth Scottish voice that belonged to none other than

"Oliver WOOD!?" said the girl in a voice that sounded like frozen poison – cold, and deadly. "What are you doing here?? I should have known when you gave that bird to me... you were never in the same room with it..."

"Fine, thanks. I see you're doing well, too," said Oliver sarcastically as he leaned against Kyung-Soon's bedpost. He watched as Alex paced the room, arms crossed, eyes flashing dangerously. After a time, he finally said, "Why are you so beelin, anyway?"

She looked at him, slightly surprised. That's true, why am I so mad? she thought. Yes, they broke up, but she was overreacting a bit. Then the words "fear of abandonment" flashed in her head. That made a little more sense. "I, uh," Alex managed, her voice softer than she meant for it to be. She sat on her four-poster, trying to regain her anger. He should've been sorry, not cordial. "Well, because you left me for some Quidditch career! How am I supposed to deal with that, Oliver?"

The former object of Alex's affection paused and sighed, ruffling his hair with a very abrasive hand. He trod over the wood flooring over to her bed, large Quidditch-playing boots making a great deal of sound. Oliver sat down next to her and swallowed. "Alex," he said in as kind and gentle a voice as he could muster, "I never meant to hurt you. You know I would never intentionally hurt you."

Alex sighed, facing away from him slightly as she crossed her arms. I don't have to be mean, I just have to be firm, she told herself. "Continue."

The Hogwarts graduate bit the inside of his cheek. "You want to know the truth?" he said resolutely, eyebrows somewhat drawn down. "Alright, fine. I wanted a Quidditch career, sure. But I was never going to go through with it, cost being to leave you behind. My parents – my father, mostly - forced me to choose the path I'm on now. I admit, I went along with it at the time, but what he was saying made sense. Fame, fortune, skills... it sounded great. But I know now, Alex," he looked down, then back at her, eyes pleading for mercy, "that I should have chosen you. And... I- I'm sorry."

The girl rubbed her hands over her face in exasperation. "Oliver," Alex looked him straight in the eye. "I've got someone nipped already. It's too late to be apologizin' now, but I'm glad you did. It... helps, I suppose."

"Got someone nipped?" Oliver said suddenly, as if the sheer thought of her going steady with someone else were unthinkable. He quirked an eyebrow and stood quite suddenly. "Who?"

"Someone you probably don't know," Alex said with determination. With a nod to the door, she crossed her arms again and announced, "I want you out of here. Now."

He looked completely crushed and annoyed, so it was surprising when he said, "Fine," in a falsely calm voice as he headed out the door. His hand was on the handle when the blonde called, "Oy, don't bother bringin' me post anymore."

And with a final growl, Oliver left the room.

That was when Laure entered the room, clearly flustered. She looked at Alex, whose head was in her hands. "What... or perhaps, who... was that?"

"Oliver," said Alex's muffled voice. It didn't sound sad, just frustrated, and maybe even wistful.

"Oh," said Laure shortly. "OH." She swallowed and tossed her transfiguration book onto her bed, and sat on it so Alex was straight across from her. She interlaced her fingers with each other, making herself look like a schoolgirl as she waited for her friend to say something.

After what seemed ten minutes (but was probably one or two), Alex finally raised her head. Her sapphire eyes held volumes of anger and pain behind them; it was odd for Laure to see her this way, and she wasn't all that sure how to react. "Apparently," she said hotly, "he's an Animagus, too. My kestrel, in fact." Alex leaned the right side of her face on her hand and closed her eyes in pure exasperation.

Laure grimaced slightly and shut her eyes, shaking her head, "Je suis desolée." Her eyes popped open for a moment and then she added hastily, "I mean, apologies. Many of them."

"'Sorry. I'm sorry,' is what we usually say," the Scotswoman corrected as she smiled faintly. "Anyway, thanks. I'm probably just going to go to bed now."

"Alright, I'm going to go to bed as well, I am very tired," Laure declared as she went to the foot of her bed to open her trunk. As she pulled out her pajamas, she noticed Alex watching her, gears in her head clearly turning; the girl's cerulean eyes were squinted slightly, and she was moving her mouth around as if chewing her cheek.

"Actually," the other girl said in a low voice, "I think I might go down to the stadium to play some Quidditch."

Laure looked surprised. Why would she want to play Quidditch at this hour? Weren't there rules about being outside the castle late at night, let alone out of the common room? I guess she knows the school best, thought the French girl as she shrugged. "Do you want me to come along?"

Alex considered the idea for a minute, then shook her head. "No, I think I'll be alright. And, I'm sure someone will be there this time at night. Probably Filch, but oh well."

"Filch?"

"The school's caretaker. He's almost anywhere you're not supposed to be, right at that time," Alex opened her trunk and pulled out what looked like a Nimbus Two-Thousand-And-One, walked to the door, and with her hand on the handle she said, "Goodnight, Laure."

"Bonne nuit, goodnight," she watched as the blonde left the room. The girl tried to get comfortable so she could get all the questions she had out of her head with the wonderful escape of sleep.

Torrey sighed. She was honored to be a prefect, but it sure got boring sometimes, especially at night. The security had been upped at Hogwarts, ironically, by sending out its prefects to stroll around the grounds until at most ten o'clock. Tonight she had the Quidditch field, along with the other Ravenclaw prefect, Shane Galesburg, who was nowhere to be seen. Irresponsible, thought Torrey dismally, I guess it's just me tonight.

She made her way to the outer part of the stadium, and then walked through the archway where the house teams usually entered the field. Empty. Well, it's always empty. Why should tonight be any different...

But was it empty? Aside from the hoops and some playing equipment left there by the Slytherin team (tsk tsk!), Torrey thought she could see no one. She began to leave when she heard something. Rustling in the bushes, perhaps? But, there were no bushes on the Quidditch field, only six hoops and several boxes to watch from. The girl shrugged it off and continued into the archway. She walked straight through until she plowed into something. No, not something... someone.

Torrey looked up, but couldn't see anything she had run into. Hell, she couldn't see anything at all. It hadn't gotten darker, had it? She stood, wiping herself off briskly with her palms. The girl almost jumped out of her skin when she heard, "Could you go any faster? Are you all sixes and sevens??"

Oh. she sighed, it was only-

"Shane, you gave me such a fright for a moment there," growled Torrey. How dumb of her, not to realize who it could be...

"Sorry!" said Shane in a half-guilty, half-vicious whisper. "I'm a little late, I know, but you know Snape always gives a lot of homework on the first day!"

Forgetting he couldn't see her, she rolled her eyes. The Ravenclaw prefect sighed once more and said, "Alright, just be there the next time, otherwise there won't be a next time for either of us."

"Really?" he sounded surprised. "Our reps are on the line for this? I didn't know that... er, okay, let's just go to the next station, then, I guess..."

The two continued through the archway and to the castle again as Torrey corrected slyly, "We're only assigned a station per night, you know."

Around forty minutes had passed in the common room, perhaps fifty (who's counting?). Laure, now in a white nightgown with robin's egg blue Bs scattered around on it, still lay on her bed dozing quietly as the other girls (save Torrey and Alex) started to file in. By the French girl's appearance, they had presumed her to be asleep, and had followed suit soon enough. But the fact of the matter was that Laure was indeed very awake.

I wonder where Torrey and Alex are, Laure's fingers intertwined with each other as she laid them on her chest. I could understand possibly half an hour at the most. But this long? There must be something wrong... She started to feel nervous again, like she had once at King's Cross Station. But there was something a little deeper in this worry – this time, it wasn't for herself, but for her friends, and it was as profound as if she'd known them her entire life.

The girl stood, shivering slightly in the cold. Though the floors were not stone, the wood still got fairly chilly. She walked over to the window at the path to the Quidditch field, only to confirm her fears; no one was on it. With a sigh Laure sat, right there at the window, with her arms moving up and down each other to create friction. She'd never realized how cozy those Hogwarts beds were; she was in a calm state just thinking about the warm comforters.

Which is why Laure nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the door handle turn. Alex, then Torrey quickly burst into the room looking as if they had seen a ghost, when they became aware that their colleagues were asleep. Torrey nodded toward her bed and mouthed something that Laure couldn't understand. It must have been something about going to bed, however, because right after that Torrey ripped off her robes and, shivering, pulled on her royal blue, flannel PJs.

Alex did not go straight to her bed as her friend had; instead, she placed her Nimbus Two-Thousand-And-One so it was leaning on her four-poster. She sat on her blue comforter, deeply breathing for a few moments before she noticed Laure in the corner. The French girl swallowed hard and stood, motioning toward the door to go to the common room. The other girl nodded and stood as well, getting ready to leave the frigid room.

The two marched down the spiral staircase together into the much warmer common room, and into some cozy chairs with throw pillows. The fire was still quite alive, the only source of warmth in the room. Alex clutched a throw pillow and tossed it skittishly around a little, staring at Laure wide-eyed.

Laure cleared her throat and prompted, "May I ask what's the matter with you?"

The other nodded and sighed. Placing the pillow on her lap, she said, "Want to hear the whole thing?"

"Er... yes," said the French girl, leaning back to listen.

"Well, uh, you see..." Alex looked down for a moment, as if gathering the details for her story. "I was walking down to the Quidditch field, and Torrey and Shane – Shane Galesburg, by the way, the other prefect – passed me. Torrey offered to come with me down there, so I took the offer. Basically, we got to the field and she threw a few Quaffles to me so I could practice. She even had a turn. But what freaked us out..." the girl was now on the edge of her seat, as she had moved about a foot away from it. Her hands were in front of her, ready to make any wild gesticulations. "... is this bright, eerie, white light we saw. And it wasn't just any white light, like from a wand. It was downright sinister. And it started to like, come toward us, really, REALLY slowly... and... ugh." She shuddered.

Laure paused with her hand on her mouth, a puzzling expression on her face. "So, a light scared you? Is that why you are so pale?" This was saying a lot, as the girl presently across from her had quite a tan.

The girl sighed in exasperation. "Aye, it doesn't sound scary. It probably doesn't even sound logical, but I HAVE a witness, and if you want me to go get her, I'll-"

"Alright, alright!" the French girl put up her hands. "You win! But that was all? Just the light you saw?"

There was a silence for some time during which Alex had a particularly guilty look on her face. "Okay, well, there's also been... well, let me tell you this first. During the summer holiday, I came here to practice Quidditch, usually at night. The last few days of the summer when I practiced there, alone, I heard these odd sounds from the outside of the stadium. I'm not sure if there's a connection."

"Sounds?"

"Aye, sounds - kind of quiet, just barely capable of being heard."

They both fell silent to think about the information that had just been dealt. Finally, Laure said in as calming a voice as she could, "Alex, perhaps we should head to bed, get some rest, and-"

Right at that moment, a small group of fourth years (obvious by their small size) – four or five boys, and perhaps three girls - burst into the room, all panting heavily, but looking gratified, and holding something. All of them collapsed onto the largest couch, which they all had to squeeze to fit into. One of the boys, a Filipino fourth year, had unruly black hair that was above his shoulders, but longer than most boys' hair. His eyes, golden brown in color, looked as if they were almost permanently in smile form, as did his mouth. It was exaggerated even more when he said, laughing a bit, in a most out-of-breath manner, "What do you know... your way was faster, Garth."

Another panting boy nodded, answering the other. Garth was a tad pale from running, and there was vast knowledge behind his hazel eyes, which were concealed by glasses. He held his finger up as if to make a point, and said (after catching his breath a bit more), "I've looked through this place a million times, and I just knew that would be a better way to go..."

Still another boy looked quizzically at Garth, "Tevira Statue on the fourth corridor – who would have known?" This one had wheat-colored hair, kind of a large mouth, and bright blue eyes. He said nothing else as he crammed a Pumpkin Pastie into that large mouth.

It was then that Laure noticed that the things the younger people were holding were Pumpkin Pasties, and other assorted treats... did this have something to do with where they had been?

The fourth years had not noticed that they had drawn the attention of the two girls in the room – in fact, they probably didn't even know they were there. They all fell silent for a few moments, and Laure observed the rest of the people there.

Two girls had dark brown hair, and intriguing brown eyes, and both were fit; they were the only two not really panting that much. The third girl had hazel eyes and light brown hair, which was tied into a tight ponytail. She was also quite thin, and had a pleasant face. One of the last couple of boys was a little pudgy, with ash blonde hair, and he was a little short. And, finally, the last boy seemed to be of Asian descent, although not completely. His eyes were the most captivating of all; they looked almost Egyptian, seemingly thick, but natural black lines around them, and had this odd... "knowing" behind them.

Finally, one of them noticed the two girls sitting patiently beside them – Garth, actually – "Oh!" he said finally, pushing up his glasses a bit. "'Lo there. You're Alex, right?"

Slightly taken aback by his sudden speech, Alex said, "Um... yeah, I am, Alex Hunt... would you mind introducing yourselves? I don't really... know the fourth years as well." It was true; mostly, she knew those above her grade as they were the ones she relied on most, even though she did know a few third years.

Garth nodded and smiled. "I'm Garth Medwin." He began to chomp on a Licorice Wand.

The boy who had first spoken, spoke up again. "Jake."

"Garner," mumbled the third boy through Pumpkin Pastie. He nodded toward the Asian boy, "He'ff Ian Camter."

The brown-haired girls spoke up at the same time, nearly, and burst out laughing. How jovial their collective laughter was... "I'm Latona, and this is Cybil," said one, who had very short hair, and could have easily been mistaken for a boy. The other, newly dubbed Cybil, had hair above her shoulders as well, but not "boy-short."

"I'm Katry," said the remaining girl with a halfhearted smile. She looked very, very worn out. In a momentary bout of silence, she removed her hair tie and let her hair cascade onto her shoulders. This made her look even more tired, as her hair was a bit tousled, and it could be plainly seen now.

Finally, after a chewing Drooble's Best Blowing Gum for quite some time, the last boy said, "Arden Lowell."

The long introduction process took nearly five minutes with all the stalling. Laure blinked after having so many names thrown at her at once. "My name's Laure Martin."

Some of the younger kinds nodded, some went back to eating their various spoils. Laure turned back to Alex, who was still watching the fourth years, and continued with their much interrupted conversation.

"Er... anyway..." the French girl struggled to find her words again, "...maybe we should just think about this tomorrow. We should tell K-Soon and Jinx as well, even."

The other fifth year only shrugged, and said no more. They both went back up the spiral stairs, and left the fourth years there to tend to the crackling fire, which began to burn down to ashes.

Alrighty! Good times... I know I forced a lot of characters on you, but there's a character guide up soon... er, there WILL be a character guide up soon ::coughs:: Yup. So... yeah... I have no time, so don't think four will be up soon XX That doesn't mean you should stop reading though! XD